Hey everyone,

I am having trouble as to going about combining the DH with RT for my new campaign.  I know about the 5000 bonus exp, but there is debate as to whether they receive the bonus +5% to all stats as well.  It seemed to make sense considering RT get universal weapon training, but it is still 5000xp…  Thoughts?  What would I do should they pay for additional advancements?  RT will still have cheaper stat costs in earlier stages.

Combining Dark Heresy careers with Rogue Trader is, no matter what the rules say about 5000xp, an incredibly bad idea. Rogue Trader characters start with a lot of redundancy that is very xp-ineffective (Basic Weapon Training (Universal), etc), whereas a Dark Heresy character will have lower xp-costs and a chance to in-depth tailor the way the 5000xp is spent, as well as - generally speaking - access to Talents or abilities of what in Rogue Trader would require a much higher rank (thus more experience) than in Dark Heresy.

I really appreciate what they have been trying to do with the various games, but they are only really interchangeable on paper, and really not intended to be played together.

This should be evident on creation, throwing 5000xp the Dark Heresy character's way, but as an exercise, roll up a 10 000xp Dark Heresy character and a 10 000xp Rogue Trader character. You will immediately see the sheer amount of skill and expertise the Dark Heresy character will have above that of the Rogue Trader characters.

I would rather suggest that you homebrew whatever career someone is wanting to play, converting it from Dark Heresy standards to Rogue Trader standards.

well it is only one character that wants a career in rogue trader while the rest would play dark heresy.  so would you advise that i shouldn't combine them?

 then what would you say about the +5 to stats only applying to rogue trader… would it give some balance for not having specialized skills?

LuciusMacharius said:

LuciusMacharius said:

The 4,500xp difference is accounted for by the increased stats, the lifepath and the special abilities. Since only the Rogue Trader characters pay for these bonuses, they should be the only ones to get them.

I wouldn't say a hybrid game is unplayable, but early on the DH characters will have far more skills and talents. Later on, the RT characters will round out and have greater potential thanks to their higher stats. At least until Ascensions levels, where DH storms ahead.

 RT characters are Rank 3 at the most. If you bring in DH characters, allow them enough xp to get to rank 3, the basically double the cost for everythinand double xp amount till next rank, perhaps even triple it. This would be only way to really bring a balance. 

 Personally I just allowed the DH characters to take the origin path, treating Motivation as a free row to select their career. A couple of tweaks to their experience gain and there were no issues.